Joining Clips/Scene Markers

[NuffRespeck]

Greetings!!
I'm in the process of completing a movie which I did in two (2) parts (in order to ease the editing process and 'memory strain'- 4GB).
My intention is now to add scene markers for the DVD, and join both clips.
Do I add the scene markers first then join the clips? Does it really matter which is done first?
I will be converting the clips to AVI files.
Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

I suspect that this might be a personal preference thing but for me, I would join everything together first. Others might prefer to work on the parts.

EDIT:

I would probably create the two separate AVIs, then put them together on the timeline in a new project, and finally add the markers and do the burn.

That's what I meant to say!

[Dave McElderry]

I would probably create the two separate AVIs, then put them together on the timeline in a new project, and finally add the markers and do the burn.

[LarryGB]

My preference is build each section that I will be using in the DVD Menu, and render them out to Mpeg2. Then I put them back together, in a new project, with the scene markers. I inevitably notice something amiss, [titles, scene remnant, bad transition, etc] even after hours of editing the footage, and have to go back and change something. I find it less stressful to re-render a short clip, then to wait for hour[s] to re-render the whole project just to make a small correction. But I'm looking at footage that goes 1.5 ~ 2hrs, so it may not be your workflow.

[NuffRespeck]

Wow! Thanks to all! A lot of food for thought!
The total project length is 44mins 5secs and I had planned on six (6) scene markers.
To LarryGB: Am I then to understand that you suggest: (i) breaking the project into six parts (ii) adding the scene marker to each part (iii) joining each part (iv) rendering and (v) then burning?

[Dave McElderry]

AVI is a much less compressed format and is preferred for editing.

[LarryGB]

Wow! Thanks to all! A lot of food for thought!
The total project length is 44mins 5secs and I had planned on six (6) scene markers.
To LarryGB: Am I then to understand that you suggest: (i) breaking the project into six parts (ii) adding the scene marker to each part (iii) joining each part (iv) rendering and (v) then burning?

In previous versions of PrE, I found that when working in my projects, with AVCHD/MP4 files, a lot of crashing, and frustration of having to redo the last edits, and remember, and forget what I had done. I must say that V10, on 64bit, seems a lot more stable. No crashes at all, so far. With my project, mostly vacation videos, or wedding shoots, it was easier to decide before hand, what my main areas of the DVD were to be, and create a project to work on each of those independently. When I was happy with the clips, transitions, titles, and music/vocal mix, I would then burn it in Mpeg2 format to a file/folder, as a complete mini movie. Then on to the next section, as a new project, edit/burn, etc till I had all items in my DVD Menu structure. Then I would create one last project, my final DVD creation. Drag in all the scenes, end for end on the timeline, mark the scenes for the menu creation, select a menu/theme, and preview. For a 2 hour project, I would be working with 6~8 shorter projects, and they would be more responsive when working on the timeline, and dragging, dropping, cropping adding effects, etc. Of course preview renders were a lot faster, and easier to change edits because of your focus, and less objects for PrE to juggle.
With a shorter project, say under 60 minutes, this is not necessary, but as advised on this and other forums, if you don't down size some of your assets, they can create a real slow down, memory issues, that some editing systems may not tolerate. So with your production, drop the two files onto the timeline, find and mark your scenes, then render out to whatever format your final product will be. Joining items on the timeline, before you mark, I don't think accomplishes anything special. The production will play as you mark it, and where joins exist, the clips should play with out any indication of a join or not.
Just my workflow, and I like it. After you work with PrE for a while, you will develop your own process, and probably stick with it. Mine came out of a need to just get the job done, successfully, and now it works great for me.

[NuffRespeck]

Thank you all for your great suggestions! I'll (i) insert the scene markers into each clip (ii) convert each into AVI files (iii) join clips and (iv) burn DVD.
I will update you on the outcome. Thanks again!